MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Vidiela & 17 other indicted.

Federal Judge Jorge Urso yesterday indicted former dictator Jorge Videla, his interior minister A. Harguindeguy and 16 other former members of the bloody 1976-1983 military régime on charges of participating in the Cóndor Plan, a scheme co-ordinating illegal repression by South American dictatorships.

Also indicted were former Tucumán military governor Antonio Domingo Bussi and ex-generals Cristino Nicolaides, Luciano Benjamín Menéndez, Guillermo Suárez Mason and Ramón Genaro Díaz Bessone, court sources said.

In a 900-page ruling the judge also ordered their arrest, accusing them of kidnapping as part of the plan to kill opponents of the military.

However, many of the former military indicted have been already under arrest in connection with other human rights abuses, such as Videla, who is serving house arrest on age considerations after being convicted of baby snatching.

In Videla's case, Urso expanded a previous indictment, accusing him of being the chief of a "criminal plan" and charging him with 34 more kidnappings.

Videla provided the accused the criminal logistics while Harguindeguy could have not ignored what was happening, Urso wrote in his ruling.

The Cóndor Plan was formed by the military dictatorships of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Bolivia.

In a landmark ruling the Supreme Court late last month said that lèse humanité crimes are not subject to the statute of limitations, in a decision which law experts say hints that the tribunal could declare unconstitutional the two laws to benefit hundreds of human rights abusers who could hence be brought to trial.

According to official data, nearly 9,000 people were killed or went missing in the "dirty war" of the military against leftist rebels, although human rights groups put the figure at 30,000.(BAH_Agencies)